Noren plays an important role

When I was walking a shopping arcade, those Japanese traditional shop curtain(or noren:暖簾) caught my eye. Noren is often found especially at the traditional shops or traditional arcades in Japan. Today, I’ll focus on noren.

As you can see in the pictures above, the name of the shops is printed on the noren. Now, shop names are usually printed on noren with several colors such as red, blue or sometimes green and so on. However, in former times, noren were originally colored with dyes such as black, brown or indigo blue, remaining only the letters white so that the shop names stand out against the background color.

Noren is considered to symbolize the shop itself, so the word noren is used in a symbolic sense. Here are some examples of Japanese expressions which include the word noren. “暖簾に傷がつく（lose one’s credit）” or “暖簾にかかわる（affect one’s honor）” are both using the word “noren” to mean “credit”, “honor” or reputation.

Noren is very important in terms of not only the symbolic sense but also its practicability. There are several important purposes of hanging noren at the entrance of the shops. Noren plays an important role as blinds. It can shut out the direct rays of the sun. It makes the room well ventilated at the same time. Moreover, noren also plays a significant role as divisions between inside and outside the shop so that what's going on inside is less exposed to the outside.

My Changing Hometown: Suita in Osaka

Today, I’ll introduce neighborhood Suita(吹田市) where I now live with my parents. I think the name Suita itself is not so familiar to most people. Quite a few people are surprised to know that Suita city is the place where International Exhibition(万国博覧会) was held in 1970. Now, there is a large Memorial Park (万博記念公園) at the area where the Exhibition was held. Therefore, we can say Suita is one of the most important cities in the world!

While Suita has such a world-famous park which tends to be considered a place for special events or festivals we can’t see in daily life, Suita is also famous for its residential area where people spend their daily lives. Because of its easy access to town center and comfortable environment which is neither noisy city nor solitary country, more and more people have decided to become residents of Suita. As a result of it, empty lots have been disappearing and the number of high buildings or new houses has rapidly increased.

Under the circumstances, however, I can find old apartments which are standing among new sophisticated houses. Old apartments surrounded by high buildings are not unusual in Suita, but those old buildings are now disappearing because of the land development on a large scale. Some decrepit apartments are forced to be reconstructed. Although I am one of the residents of newly developed area, anyway I feel sad about the decrease in such old houses. People of my parents’ generation especially seem to feel sad about it because those buildings remind them of their good old days in Showa period.

Even these types of old buildings shown in the right picture used to be regarded as the most fashionable houses especially in a rapid economic growth period of Japan. However, as the times change, those houses began to be considered as old fashioned houses. At the same time, the more high-tech houses have begun to receive people’s attention. People started to demand earthquake-resistant construction, security systems, wide electrical network systems and so on. In fact, these technology have enabled people to deal with today’s unsafe and information-oriented society.

I think both old fashioned and high-tech houses have their own advantages in each of them, so I hope that Suita will become a unique city where both “new” and “old” can exist together.
However, the environment of Suita’s residential area is in fact greatly changing because of the convenient location of Suita. That’s my developing hometown!

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Map of Osaka

More information about recent housing problems

Photo Collection of Showa-style housing

Baby Goods!?

What can you see in these two pictures? As you can see, these are strollers and wide variety of clothes, but they’re not pictures taken in Nishimatsuya(西松屋) or other children’s goods store. These pictures are actually taken in a pet shop in Japan. Now, you find that these goods have been produced for animals such as dogs or cats kept as pets.

Today, pets are getting more and more popular in Japan, which is quite noticeable as you see Japanese people walking their dogs on the streets or in the parks every day. In fact, the number of dogs kept as pets exceeds that of children under 15 years of age in Japan. People are likely to seek for a kind of healing effect in having pets. Now, the pets tend to be regarded as a member of family rather than an animal. Therefore, people take care of their pets by dressing them nicely or going out with their pets put in strollers as if dogs were their babies. One of the reasons why the small sized dogs(小型犬: kogataken) are especially popular is probably because that people want to let their dogs stay indoors as a member of their families. I think the dogs are downsized to fit the limited living space of Japan.

I think that this pets boom has something to do with a declining birth rate which is one of the recent serious problems in Japan. Japanese people are substituting pets for their babies and they seem to be satisfied with their pets. Quite a few people who have pets don’t feel attraction for having their real babies. The dogs might join a resident registrations network in the near future.